Garin von Brandt (Earth-1999)
"When the flame seeks more, when He is not satisfied with his slaves, there shall come another, one whose flame shall burn brighter than the Sun. Kreion Pyralis shall find him...Kreion Pyralis wants the brightest flame...Kreion Pyralis seeks you." -The Cultists chanting about Garin in Greek History Early Life Garin von Brandt was raised in a large house of fourteen in Bonn, Germany. The von Brandt family were upper class bankers, and growing up in a vertically extended family meant that there were high expectations for every new child born into the family tree. Garin was the third youngest child of the family, having three older siblings (two older brothers and one older sister) and two younger brothers. Garin's parents and their individual parents lived under the same roof, as well as the wife and child of the eldest son of the family. Evidently, the middle child of a family this large is expected to be ignored, though this isn't quite true. Garin was a smart boy and a straight-A student, which would normally outshine his siblings, if it weren't for the fact that his siblings were just the same: all smart straight-A students, the eldest ones with jobs such as accountants and surgeons, and the parents and grandparents as bankers. Garin's parents had hoped him to become a lawyer, but with all these expectations and siblings being figurative clones of him, Garin's life couldn't be more bland... The Cult of Kreion Pyralis Garin was 20 years old, he was on a trip to Greece with some friends to take a break from his family. His friends persuaded him to go, but it was his choice to go to Greece. Garin and his friends loved exploring the place, Garin especially enjoyed the trip as he never got to have much fun and relaxation back at home. On one over-adventurous night, Garin and his friends were heading back to their hotel. One of his friends suggested they check out some beach near a large cave, he had heard stories of some Satanic cult that sacrificed people to the Devil by burning them alive. His friends scared and curious, Garin felt that this was obviously a bad myth, and agreed to check it out just to prove it was a hoax. The group of friends found an empty beach near the dark cave at night. Garin told them it was fake, but as he said this, a fire lit in the cave. Several people emerged, some holding a ball of fire in their palms like a torch, all surrounding an artifact of some sort. They were talking in a different language that the friends didn't understand, but Garin, while not knowing the language, could catch a glimpse of what they were chanting. They were speaking about someone, maybe about the friends, and were referring back to the artifact, and calling out to someone named "Kreion Pyralis". They approached the friends, though not acting hostile. They communicated with them through their own language, but the friends just mocked this. Garin commented on how the artifact looked expensive and cool, so one of his friends told him he should take it as the cultists are probably too mad to notice. The other friends admired the way the cultists were holding the fire in their hands, diverting the attention to them. In this time, Garin grasped the artifact, though the cultists didn't react. The friends then ran away laughing with Garin, as the cultists watched them run. Garin suspected them to be mental, but he kept the artifact. He took it back home with him as a souvenir, to keep in him room. One night, on Garin's 21st birthday, he was in his room when it was midnight. He heard this chanting whisper and crackling of a live flame, the same sounds from the cultists a year ago, it was coming from the artifact, now resting on his bedroom shelf. He got up to take a look at it, he picked it off the shelf and held his ear up to it. He heard the chants calling out to "Kreion Pyralis" again then when he looked back at it, the sounds stopped. He pressed his thumbs down on these two slot things acting as a handle. When he did this, the artifact began to heat up. It became warmer and warming, till it actually started to hurt Garin. He wanted to let go but he couldn't. Then suddenly, the artifact caught alight and burst into flames, the fire spread to him and expanded till it engulfed his entire body in flames. He felt a large amount of pain, he was burning alive. He screamed to the top of his lungs as his skin burnt off, but the pain didn't stop there. The fire burned him on the inside, it felt like his soul was wasting away as if it were made of oil. Then suddenly, before anyone got to his room, he exploded into a huge sphere of fire that destroyed everything a mile out. The flames quickly disappeared, and what was left was a charred, burnt piece of matter in the shape of a man: Garin. He was at his knees looking down at the artifact, faceless and motionless. The artifact broke in two and fell out his hands. He was sitting in the ashes of what was his house. His eyes opened and he took in the events. His eyes were now pools of lava, and his body had cracks in it. He looked down at himself and examined his body. It was dark and felt cold inside. He looked up and felt a sudden heat. A metre in front of him, he saw something flicker in the air. It was like a fire was starting in the air, and it was sucking in energy to grow. It ionised the air around him and he felt a burst of heat. It formed like a small ball of fiery air. It made strange whispering noises that were definitely not human. It then slowly moved towards Garin and entered him, wrapping around his torso and then spreading over his burnt skin. It then absorbed into him and Garin quickly vanished in thin air... The True Pyralis Garin went missing for several months. He was assumed dead along with the rest of the von Brandt family, though a body was never uncovered. The government didn't understand how the explosion occurred, and they suspected a surprise terrorist attack, the disaster killed over a hundred people in the city of Bonn. It is still a mystery what happened to Garin von Brandt, but Garin reappeared in Austria several months later. The events during these months is still a mystery, but Garin had learned what he was. The artifact Garin stole from the cultists had released some sort of energy, it burned Garin and reformed him into a walking figure of ash. It cursed him for life, there was no way to return. The energy that caused this manifests a plasmic substance that appears to Garin randomly, latching onto him again, without the harmful explosion or pain. When this occurs, Garin becomes engulfed in flames that quickly disperse, leaving behind a fresh Garin: his body is regular again, he has his old skin, his brown hair, he's human again. But the exception of his eyes, which are blood red. While in this human form, Garin has access to amazing Pyrokinetic and magical abilities, but the power changes him, he can feel an entity inside him. He can choose to release the Entity if he wants, but then he will revert back to his damaged from, with very minor Pyrokinetic abilities. What the entity is is still a mystery to Garin, but he hopes to find out and rid of it as soon as possible. Garin now lives in the United Kingdom, England to be specific. He lives in a one-bedroom-flat by himself. He is currently 24 years old. While at home he hides, revealing his true burnt self and hiding from public. Whenever he wishes to leave, he bonds with the Entity, and usually does things that he normally wouldn't. Garin lives a life of depression, his family and friends are dead and his appearance looks like something out of a horror movie. However, when bonding with the Entity, he becomes a Pyralis, a host of the Entity which he assumes is called Kreion Pyralis based on the voices in his head. He goes out during the day and picks fights with criminals, has a run in with the cops, and sky dives off rooftops. This mirrors the behavior of his old self, the one that stole the artifact, and when he does these activities, he calls himself the Pyralis. When he returns home he sees on the news what he does. It only makes him want to get the Entity away from him more. Whether he's under the influence of the Entity or not, he always feels a fire inside him that wants to act out, preferably against crime if he still has his stable mind. So he fashioned himself a name, created a costume, and he goes out at night to fight criminals and makes up for what crimes he commits in the day, under the second alias of Resurgence... Powers and Abilities Pyralis Form *''Pyrokinetic Sorcery:'' Garin in Pyralis form has access to the mystical flames of Kreion Pyralis. These flames are not like the fire used to cook or warm, these flames are magical and can do things regular fire can't. They can have magical effects as well as grant magical powers to the Pyralis using them. **'Pyrokinesis:' Garin has a great control over his flames. He can manipulate and create flames directly from his body or out of thin air. His control over fire extends to regular fire and nearly all sources of heat. He can also generate and control heat, plasma, lava and other heat-based matter. The flames he creates are smokeless and can burn without a fuel, as they are fueled by magic directly from Kreion Pyralis itself; this magic when burned can induce an ecstacy-filled state into the Pyralis and those around them, similar to the effect of some drugs. The fire is essentially immortal and can burn for however long Garin wishes. **'Sorcery:' Powers granted directly from Kreion Pyralis itself, the Pyralis has command over various magical abilities. Garin has unlocked a fair few of these abilities. The Sorcery is fire-based, and such has a fiery touch on its effects and aesthetics. Such as teleportation would be the Pyralis bursting into flames and reappearing in an explosion of fire. Some of the vast array of Sorcery available to Garin are listed below. (Garin has more powers, but he isn't a fully developed Pyralis and thus has more powers to unlock) ***Teleportation: Garin can teleport long distances (this power works with short distances, but is instantaneous and is better suited for long distances). ***Astral Projection: Garin can leave his physical body behind and explore his surroundings while bound with Kreion Pyralis. ***Conjuration: Garin can create simple objects out of fire. ***Healing: Garin can heal beings to full health. ***Gravity: Garin can create a gravitational field and bend it to his will (this power can create black holes, but is a locked ability for Garin). ***Flight: Garin can fly through the air without the ties of gravity or friction slowing him down. ***Hyper Sense: Garin can communicate to living beings via telepathy and track down a being anywhere in the world so long as he has a fresh mark of it's scent. ***Manifestation: Garin can create beings of fire to fight for him. *''Pyralis Physiology:'' Blessed by the presence of Kreion Pyralis, a Pyralis is granted a series of benefits to their physical body to protect them while they are a host to Kreion. These benefits are listed below (Garin automatically has access to all benefits upon bonding with Kreion and has no need to unlock them, however this only applies to Garin, the True Pyralis, while others Pyralises have to unlock them themselves). A few of the more powerful benefits are exclusive to Garin, as he is the True Pyralis. **'Healing Factor:' Every Pyralis can heal automatically from many fatal wounds in mere seconds. ***Immortality: Exclusive Benefit - Garin can heal from any wound he receives and is immune to one-hit-kills, poisonous effects and aging. Garin can also survive in a vacuum. **'Enhanced Senses:' All Pyralises have senses above the average human; hardly superhuman, but on par with the best humans on Earth. **'Heat Immunity:' All Pyralises are immune to heat, fire and all burning effects. ***Hypothermia Immunity: As an extension, all Pyralises are immune to freezing and the effects of cold temperatures. They can be frozen in ice, but their body heat will naturally melt it eventually. **'Enhanced Durability:' Exclusive Benefit - Garin is more resistant to outside forces than regular humans; his skin is tougher, his bones are denser, and his metabolism is higher too. ***Increased Strength: Exclusive Benefit - As an extension, Garin can bench-press more than the average human and hit with a harder force. Faceless Form *''Cursed Smoke Sorcery:'' This power is only accessible in Faceless form, the burnt and charred form of Garin when the warmth of Kreion Pyralis is not present. This power is exclusive to the True Pyralis Garin. Garin can generate and manipulate a magical form of smoke and ash, which gives him magical abilities to defend himself when he is not connected to Kreion. **'Cursed Typhokinesis:' This power isn't exactly Smoke Manipulation but rather a weaker version with less capabilities. Garin can generate and control smoke, making clouds of smoke, absorbing smoke or simply just making puffs of it. The Cursed aspect is just because the Smoke was granted by being cursed by Kreion via the burns of his Faceless form, Garin is the True Pyralis so he got an advantage from the curse, this power. **'Sorcery:' Garin has access to a variety of Smoke related magic. The magic is influenced by smoke and such has its effects and aesthetics similar to that of smoke. The abilities are listed below (remember that all these abilities are exclusive to Garin only). ***Teleportation: Garin can teleport short distances in a puff of smoke (this power is only good at short distance teleportation and cannot teleport to a far away location). ***Summoning: Garin can summon objects that already exist to or on himself(he must know where and what it is), this also works with desummoning the already summoned object. ***Mask: Garin can hide himself and others in smoke. ***Telekinesis: Garin can lift people and objects with smoke. =Weaknesses= Garin's great power comes with its fair set of limitations and weaknesses, as being a Pyralis is both a blessing and a curse. The effect the weaknesses have on him, and the extent of the limitations are reduced slightly than they are on regular Pyralises. Here are the Weaknesses and Limitations for Garin. *''Hydrophobia:'' Kreion Pyralis has one simple weakness: water. Now water can't weaken Kreion Pyralis at all, but it can stop the flames once they are alight. Garin can reignite the fire, but if he is thrown in a body of water, his powers will cancel out. The water has zero effect on his magical abilities, however, holy and special types of water can weaken his magic, and prevent him from igniting his flames again so long as he is wet. What differs this weakness between a regular Pyralis and Garin is that a regular Pyralis can't ignite their flames after being drenched in regular water, and are likely forced back into Faceless form. *''Overheat Capacity:'' The more fire Garin generates, the harder it becomes to control Kreion Pyralis. Kreion takes more control over his personality and actions, and Garin becomes more dangerous and lethal. When Garin becomes too controlled by Kreion, he usually switches back to Faceless randomly to cool down. *''Pyralite Presence:'' When a Pyralite is close by, a Pyralis is stronger. This presence power up extends three miles and increases depending on how close they are. When there are no Pyralites, Garin finds it harder to control Kreion or stay a Pyralis longer. *''Fire Within:'' So long as Kreion is bonded with Garin, he feels a burning flame inside him equivalent to "constantly eating fire". This makes him feel uncomfortable at times, but also gives him a powerful drive. *''Succumbing to the Flames:'' Some times when Garin is in Faceless form for too long, Kreion forces control into Pyralis form to reignite his flame within. **'Resistance Burns:' If Garin resists this, he feels the pain of being burnt by Kreion as a punishment for staying in Faceless form for too long. *''Fiery Touch:'' Kreion's power is nigh infinite, and thus Garin can't control it all. Therefore, he may accidentally release this energy if harmed, excited or some times just touching another person triggers it. This touch can instantly kill someone which makes Garin really dangerous. This curse applies only to Garin. *''Addiction:'' Due to all the benefits that comes with being a Pyralis (mostly the euphoric state), and the curse that the Faceless form gives, a Pyralis when in Faceless form is faced with constant addiction and a want to be in Pyralis form. This means that they will subconsciously keep trying to bond with Kreion. **'Emptiness:' When a Pyralis is left in Faceless form, they sometimes feel depression and loneliness without Kreion, like a flame has burnt out. This is a side effect of the addiction. Personality As a teenager, Garin was the rebel type, he did things his own way and had absolute freedom. He never was tied down by stress or responsibility, and based on how he was doing in school, the teachers assumed it was because he was super confident in his own intelligence. It's true, Garin is a very smart young man, he has a rather high IQ, nothing out of the ordinary though. Garin took great care of his friends, and would spend time going out with them. He took pride in his family and felt he belonged with them, even though he was the most "loose" out of them all. As Garin grew older, he kept his fun-loving attitudes but grew more tied down. After he was transformed into a Pyralis, Garin adopted two new personalities that changed whenever he switched between Pyralis and Faceless form. In Faceless form Garin is much more mature and straightforward; he doesn't take any bull and is very serious. He is very careful about what he does and tries hard to prevent himself unintentionally slipping into Pyralis form. He is also suffering mild depression and loneliness as an effect of Kreion, and because his whole family was indirectly murdered by him. He has a mild dislike of Kreion Pyralis and hates when he needs or subconsciously wants to bond with it, and thus fights crime without the aid of Kreion with his smoke magic at night under the alias of Resurgence. In Pyralis form, Garin regains his old teenager personality, except with a little more "fire". He loses all ties and care, and becomes a lot less worrying of the health of himself and everything around him, as he is essentially immortal and really powerful. He acts as if he is drugged and is very energetic and playful, cracking jokes and playing pranks, this is because the mystical flame within every Pyralis induces euphoria in them to boost their mood and activity. Sometimes his euphoria is so powerful it fills him with a drive, sometimes sexual, that makes him have a need for sexual intercourse or have the need for thrill, similar to daredevils in real life. He sets things on fire at times and finds it hard to act seriously. Despite his Immortality and immense power, he has slight ballistophobia, he is scared of being shot at and avoids confrontation with Firearms. Features Physical Appearance Garin looks exactly like he does in his face claim. At least he used to. When Kreion Pyralis erupted, it burnt off Garin's olive skin, leaving behind a charred piece of molten ash. He looks like a walking figure of ash, that shadows his old handsome face. His eyes are ablaze with fire, and cracks lay on his skin with lava patterns inside them. He emits smoke and smells like smoke all the time. His voice is deeper and more monotonous than his old voice. Most people would fear this Form, so Garin isolates himself when in this Form. This is known as his Faceless form, a Form of no identity. When Garin bonds with Kreion Pyralis, his skin heals from the burnt piece of ash to smooth, youthful olive skin; his fiery eyes cool down to clean, sharp ruby red eyes; he looks just like he did before he was burnt alive, except he is now more handsome and has the red eyes which he can't change (they represent the presence of Kreion Pyralis in him). Kreion Pyralis heals him to look normal again, like a human, though this Form can be altered, if Garin loses his connection to his own humanity and gives himself up to Kreion, then he can change forms to look like anything he wants. The process of switching in and out of Pyralis form and Faceless form looks as if Garin spontaneously combusts, and the fire either escapes him and dissipates (Pyralis to Faceless), or the fire decreases as it enters him through his mouth, eyes and chest, then his skin heals (Faceless to Pyralis). Garin is fluent in English and German, as he learned English at school, though he still has a medium German accent (it doesn't affect his pronunciation much). Clothing When in his free time in Faceless form, Garin is naked, as he is covered in ash that hides everything anyway, and his clothes usually get dirty from the ash. As Resurgence, Garin created a metallic suit of armor to cover his skin while he fights crime. There is a hole in the helmet where smoke comes out as he breathes and the heat from his eyes lights it up. He created the suit while in Pyralis form so his powers work through the armor. The armor isn't advanced or super tough in anyway, it's made of a special steel with a very high melting point and low weight. When in Pyralis form, Garin wears pretty much any clothing he wants as he can just create it if he wishes. Typically he wears short-sleeved T-shirts and jeans with trainers, but the colors, styles and types vary. As The True Pyralis Garin wears a bright red button-downed t-shirt, which he keeps unbuttoned with no shirt underneath. His skin underneath something has pulsating cracks of lava on his chest for intimidating. This also extends to cracks around his eyes when he releases more power (more power he releases = the more his physical form breaks down and Kreion Pyralis takes over). Over his legs he wears dark blue jeans with a black belt and a golden belt buckle. For shoes he wears red and black striped Adidas trainers. He wears this outfit every time he engages in combat which he can simply "burn" onto himself and "burn" back to normal clothing. Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Earth-1999 Category:German Category:Good Characters Category:Evil Characters Category:Height Category:Weight Category:Red Eyes Category:Brown Hair Category:English Category:Alternate Form Category:Pyrokinesis Category:Fire Blasts Category:Thermokinesis Category:Geo-Thermokinesis Category:Sorcery Category:Teleportation Category:Astral Projection Category:Banishment/Summoning Category:Biokinesis Category:Gravitikinesis Category:Flight Category:Telepathy Category:Hunting/Tracking Category:Animation Category:Healing Factor Category:Immortality Category:Toxic Immunity Category:Advanced Longevity Category:Space Survival Category:Thermal Resistance Category:Super Durability Category:Super Strength Category:Gas Manipulation Category:Telekinesis Category:Multilingual Category:Original Characters Category:Plasma Generation